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Copyright, 1910, 1911, by
The Curtis Publishing Company

Copyright, 1911, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company

CHAPTER I
IN WHICH BILLY MEETS NIMBUS

MOTHER had been helping Billy with his geographylesson, sitting in the garden on a lovely dayearly in spring, and showing Billy how the earthrevolves on its axis. To illustrate this difficult matter andto make it interesting, she had taken a big yellow orange torepresent the Earth and had used a stick of lemon candyfor the Pole. She made the Equator out of a black rubberband such as you put around fat envelopes.

Then, when Billy said that he understood, Mother duga hole in the orange and stuck the lemon stick in it and,handing it to Billy, said with a droll twinkle in her blueeyes, which always seemed to be laughing:

Now Billy had never before tasted the joys of an orangeeaten through a stick of lemon candy; so when Mother,who had a trick of remembering nice things from her own[4]childhood, showed Billy how it was done, he settled downto a blissful half hour in which he meant to devour thewhole earth.

It tasted so good that he rolled over on the short grass,under a lilac-bush in full bloom, and only took his lips fromthe North Pole long enough to tell his mother that it tasted“bully.”

“Well,” said his mother, standing up and shaking outher blue dress, “I must go now. Here is your geography.Don’t forget to bring it in when you come, and don’t losethe Equator off the Earth, even if you are eating it. Idon’t know what would become of us if the Equator reallyshould get away!”

Billy laughed aloud. It really was no trouble at all tounderstand things when Mother made them appear sofunny.

He lay on his back looking up into the sky, which wasjust the color of his mother’s blue dress. White clouds,like mountains of white feathers which must be very softto sleep on, were over his head.

A bee was buzzing lazily over the lavender blossoms ofthe lilacs. A soft wind was blowing. It was indeed verypleasant.

“I am one bee!” answered the bee, striking a match onBilly’s orange and lighting a grapevine cigarette.

“I am always beeing things—flowers and honey—soof course I could bee a fairy. How do you know that Iam not one? Look at me!”

“Well, I never!” exclaimed Billy. “A minute ago Ithought you were a bee!”

“I can bee anything I choose,” said the Fairy. “That’swhy you thought I was a bee. Because I can bee!”

Without finishing his sentence he unfolded a pink parasoland tossed it into the air. It sailed away, slowly atfirst, then more rapidly as the light wind caught it andcarried it out of sight beyond the lilac-bush.

“I won’t need it till it begins to rain,” he explained,“so they might as well have it.”

“The sunbeams. If a sunbeam gets wet he’s done for.Haven’t you ever noticed that?”

Billy thought he had noticed something of the kind.[6]Anyway the sunbeams all disappeared directly it began torain. But being just an ordinary little boy, he was muchmore interested in the conversation of the wonderfulstranger than he was in sunbeams, and that is why heasked:

“My name is Nimbus and I live in the clouds withthe other fairies. I was named after one of theclouds.”

“Very well,” said Nimbus briskly, “keep right on don’tbelieving. It doesn’t disturb me in the least.”

“And besides,” said Billy, “there couldn’t be such athing as a Geography Fairy.”

“No,” Billy admitted, “I don’t think I ever did. Atleast I don’t remember ever having seen one.”

Apparently not caring whether he got an answer or not,Nimbus leaped lightly from the lilac blossom and, pickingup an irregular sunbeam that filtered through the bush,he set it carefully on edge against the brim of Billy’s hat.

[7]“They get tired lying flat on their backs so much,” hesaid. “We’ll take this one with us when we go. Whenwe’re hungry we’ll eat it.”

“But we’re not going anywhere,” said Billy. “AtleastI am not. I’ve got to go into the house and put thetoys away in a few minutes.”

“Tut! tut!” said Nimbus. “Doesn’t the proverb say‘Never do anything to-day you can just as well put offuntil to-morrow’? Let’s enchant a trolley car and go lookafter the Equator. I ought to be there now. That’s my job,looking after the Equator. I’ve left the Equine Ox there,but he has such a habit of getting indigestion in one ofhis four stomachs, and sometimes in all of them, that heis very inattentive to business.”

“Indigestion in four stomachs must be terribly distressing,”said Billy. “But what is an Equine Ox?”

“You surely see one twice a year,” said Nimbus. “Butthey are always around. They have to be somewhere.”

“Their names are Vernal and Autumnal. Here’s apoem I wrote about them once. My friends say I am conceitedabout my poetry, but I’m not. I don’t think it isas good as it really is.”

“That,” said Nimbus, “will give you an excellent ideaof the Equine Ox. Now let us enchant that trolley carand be off about our business.”

“There you go again,” said Nimbus, “never believing inthings. Bring me a trolley car and I’ll show you whetheror not I can enchant it.”

“I can’t bring you a trolley car,” said Billy. “You’llhave to hail one on the street if you want one. Anywaythey don’t go to the Equator; they only go to town.”

“We’ll see where they go,” returned Nimbus. “If Iwere going alone I’d go on a cloud, but I don’t supposeyou could sit on a cloud, could you?”

[9]“I’m sure I couldn’t,” said Billy. “Besides, what’s theneed of going at all?”

“Oh, I really must go! A foolish Spring Tide brokeone of the tropics the other day, and if the other getsbroken there will be nothing to hold the Equator downbut the meridians, and you know they’re very fragile.”

Billy didn’t know that, but he nodded intelligently. Itis always best to pretend to know more about geographythan you really do.

“We’ll be back in time for dinner,” continued Nimbus;“that is, if I don’t have to fasten up the tides again.”

“Why,” said Billy, “you don’t mean to say you have tofasten the tides?”

“Certainly!” replied Nimbus. “You know the tides arealways trying to put out the Moon, and they go chasingaround the Earth after her night and day. Of course theshore stops them after a while and drives them back, andthat’s what makes them high and low. They’re high whenthey run up and try to wash over the shore, and low whenthe shore drives them back again. But to keep them fromgoing too far we tie them down with meridians. That’swhy they call them tides. Each one is tied, don’t you see?”

“Gracious!” exclaimed Billy. “I hope they can’t getuntied and put the Moon out.”

“Oh, they won’t,” Nimbus assured him, “while I’mwatching them! Sometimes they sneak up on her out ofthe ocean in little drops that we call mist, but the Sun[10]always catches them at it, and sends them scurrying downin rain again.”

“I almost believe I’ll go,” said Billy, “if you’re surewe can be back in time.”

“Not a doubt of it,” said Nimbus; “I’ll send you backon a meteor if I have to stay.”

Billy excused himself for a minute and ran into thehouse to tell his mother, but she was nowhere to be found.So he wrote a note in which he explained that he had goneaway for a little while with the Geography Fairy. Returningto the garden, he found that Nimbus had nowgrown to be as large as a middle-sized baby. He wasstrolling across the lawn on his way to the front gate.

Billy trudged along by his side, and soon they were atthe street corner awaiting the coming of a big red trolleycar, which Billy hailed at Nimbus’s suggestion.

When the two got in the conductor looked at the queerlittle stranger in amazement.

But Nimbus only nodded at him coldly, leaped up onthe seat and began digging into his pocket, from whichhe presently pulled a huge blue transfer.

For reply Nimbus folded the transfer up into a tinywand, touched the conductor on the cap with it and said:

“This car for the Equator. Passengers desiring transfersfor the Arctic Circle or the North Pole will kindlymention it before we get to Cuba.”

“Nimbus folded the transfer into a tiny wand and said:
‘This car for the Equator!’”

CHAPTER II
THE ENCHANTED TROLLEY CAR

OF COURSE such an announcement as that madea great commotion in the trolley car. The otherpassengers, a thin deacon, two plumber’s apprenticesand a burglar, wanted to get off immediately.

“I was going back to the shop to get the tools,” saidone of the plumber’s apprentices.

“And I,” said the burglar, “was just looking about fora nice easy house to rob. They don’t have any houses atthe Equator, so I would have absolutely nothing to do.”

“Tut! tut!” said the conductor peevishly. “Keep yourseats, gents. There ain’t no such a place as the Equatoron this line. You’re on the wrong car, young chaps,” headded, turning to Billy and Nimbus.

Billy was troubled at this. Could it be that Nimbusreally couldn’t enchant the trolley car after all?

But the Fairy only smiled as the car, which had startedaway suddenly, came to a stop, as if it had run into something.

[14]“Get past what?” inquired Billy and the plumber’s apprenticesin a breath.

“But,” said Billy, “no imaginary line really goes anywhereexcept the Equator.”

“Neither will the trolley car until I let it,” repliedNimbus. “So they are in the same fix.”

“Not enough juice,” he growled. “She turns all right,but she don’t get nowhere.”

“Try her again,” advised the conductor anxiously. Hewas looking at Nimbus and Billy with suspicion. “Youkids ain’t been soapin’ the track, have you?” he inquiredsuddenly.

The motorman again turned on the power, but althoughthe wheels hummed and whirred on the track, not an inchforward did the car go.

“There’s something wrong,” he said, “but I don’t knowwhat it is. She turns all right, and she acts all right, butshe don’t go ahead none.”

“She won’t,” said Nimbus, “till these people get off. Itwould be a shame to take them to the Equator.”

“It’s all right with us,” said the plumber’s apprentices,settling back in their seats. “Our time will go on just thesame.”

“Well, it ain’t with me,” said the motorman. “I’m goingto see what’s stopping her.”

He went to the rear door and was about to swing off thesteps when he uttered a cry of alarm.

At this both the plumber’s apprentices ran to the platformand jumped hastily to the ground.

The motorman and conductor hurried to the frontplatform, but when they reached it the car had risenthirty feet in the air and was sailing merrily throughspace.

The conductor reeled back into the car and sank breathlesson a seat. The motorman followed him.

“What kind of a way to do is this?” demanded the conductorof Nimbus. “And me with a wife and fivechildren.”

“There is no danger at all,” said Nimbus soothingly.“We’ll have to come down again, you know. Everythingdoes, that goes up.”

The conductor had got a little over his fright, and waslooking out of the window.

“I don’t know where we’re going, Tommy,” he said to the[16]motorman, “but it does look as if we was on our way,don’t it?”

“It’s an outrage!” said the motorman, “and I’ve a goodmind to chuck this little feller overboard. It’s all hisdoings.”

“You see,” he said to Billy, “that a trolley car can beenchanted if you go at it right. I could enchant the conductorand motorman if I wanted to. I think I’d turn themotorman into a bull.”

“Now, don’t do nothing like that,” he said. “I like thisflying business, honest I do.”

“Very well,” said Nimbus, “but I think you had bettergo out on the platform and look for stars. We may berunning into one any time.”

The motorman was glad to return to his post, andthe conductor arose and walked unsteadily to therear platform, where he held fast to the dashboardrail and gazed with open-mouthed wonder at the scenebelow.

“We’ll soon be coming to the Dog Star,” Nimbus toldBilly. “His name is Sirius, but he isn’t. He’s almosteight million years old, but he still behaves like a PuppyStar at the snow-making season. He worries the SnowFairies half to death.”

[17]“They are the people that make the snow. Didn’tyou ever hear the proverb, ‘Make snow while the moonshines’?”

Billy wasn’t quite sure. He had heard one very muchlike that, though, about hay, and he wondered if they madesnow in fields and left it out to dry in the moonshine.

“Yes,” said Nimbus, although Billy had not spoken, “itis very much the same. The snowflakes grow on the littlestalks that shoot up from the clouds, and the Snow Fairiesharvest them and dry them in the moonlight. Then theysift it down on the land and sea, whenever Jack Frostsays the little boys and girls are tired of nutting andmaking autumn-leaf bonfires, and want to coast and throwsnowballs.”

“Oh! gracious, no. They break the hail off the rainclouds with their hammers, and it freezes on the way down.They soon tire of that, though, so they never keep it uplong. That is why you hear people say ‘Hail and Farewell.’You have to say good-by to a hailstorm almostbefore you’ve had time to say hello to it.”

“Oh, Dog Stars have no manners. That is very wellshown in the poem I wrote about the Dog Star. Did youever happen to hear it?”

[18]“Well,” said Nimbus, “as nearly as I can remember itruns something like this:

“You see,” continued Nimbus, “the Dog Star caresabsolutely nothing for manners. He even barks atO’Taurus.”

“He’s the Irish Bull,” said Nimbus. “I’ll tell you moreabout him later. I’ve got to go to meet this Meteor now.”

Billy had noticed that for some time it had been getting[19]brighter and brighter, although the Sun had hidden himselfbehind a great wall of blue-black clouds. Now he lookedthrough the front windows and saw a great star sweepingrapidly down on them, swishing a long tail behindhim.

“Is—is it a comet?” he asked in affright, observing thatthe motorman rushed into the car, slamming the door afterhim.

“Comet nothing!” said Nimbus. “It’s only a fourth-class Meteor with a message for me. They’re the A.D.T.boys up here, and he’s probably brought some word fromthe Equine Ox.”

The Meteor came alongside and Billy read in gold lettersacross his glowing cap the words:

“Seven million nine hundred thousand six hundred andthree,” said Nimbus. “What have you got, boy?”

“Message, sir,” said the Meteor briskly, taking off hiscap and extracting a blue envelope.

So! The Equator was trying to do the very thingMother told Billy not to let him do! He was trying toslip off the earth by way of the South Pole!

CHAPTER III
THE EQUATOR IS LOOSE

“BOTHER that Equine Ox,” said Nimbus. “I mighthave known he’d do something like that, and justbefore procession week, too.”

“Yes, the week of the procession of the Equine Oxes.The Sun and the Moon and their oldest daughter, theEvening Star, were coming down to see it, and Jack Frostand Aurora Borealis ought to be there now. And thatmiserable Equine Ox has gone and spoiled it all. He isn’tfit for anything but a barbecue.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Billy, while the conductorand the motorman gaped in a dazed silence.

“Do? Why, fix it, of course. I only hope we can getthere before he breaks away altogether. It would be abeautiful state of affairs to have an Equator charging upand down the world, wouldn’t it?”

“Oh, certainly!” said Nimbus. “When you played underthe trees in your front yard, do you think it would be funto have cocoanuts drop on you instead of acorns? Instead[24]of rabbits and chipmunks in the woods, do you think itwould be fun to see lions and tigers and boa-constrictorsand laughing hyenas, to say nothing of hippopotamuseswith teeth like banisters? Yes, it would be real jolly now,wouldn’t it?”

The Meteor, who had entered the car unasked and takena seat on the floor, now got up and began to shoot violentlyfrom one door to another, sometimes zigzagging so that hebumped the windows. His blazing tail trailed after him,and once or twice Billy had to draw back quickly to keephis face from a severe switching.

The conductor and the motorman were very much annoyedby these antics, and at last the conductor said:

“He can’t sit still,” said Nimbus. “A meteor is a shootingstar and ever so often he has to shoot.”

“Shootin’ is against the rules,” growled the motorman.“No shootin’ allowed in any cars of this company.”

“He isn’t shooting aloud. He’s shooting to himself,”said Nimbus. “I’ll send him back to the Equator as soonas I compose a message that is strong enough to tell theEquine Ox what I think of him.”

Billy had been looking out of the window. A long wayoff he noticed a row of enormous signs, each with curious[25]characters on it, all outlined in bright green and bluestars.

“Signs of the Zodiac,” said the Meteor, coming to a suddenstop and looking over Billy’s shoulder. “‘Keep offthe sky,’ and ‘No loose dogs allowed,’ and such like. TheAerolites have just turned ’em on. They come right afterthe twilight.”

“Neither do I,” said the Meteor, “but I’ll explain it ina minute. I’ve got a few shots in me now that have gotto go off.”

He leaped to his feet and began to dart backward andforward in the car till Nimbus, who was writing on a padof paper, became irritated and slammed the car-door onthe Meteor’s tail.

“Isn’t he peevish!” said the Meteor, sinking down atBilly’s side. “But as I was saying about the Aerolites,every night the Sun goes down, as you know, and it wouldbe pitch dark until the Moon and the Stars came up if itwasn’t for them.

“One of them keeps watch until he sees the Sun startingto slide behind a mountain or into the sea, and then hetells the others, and they all hurry around and light thetwilights. When they have them all lit there is enoughlight to see by till the Moon and the Stars get out of bedfor the night. After that they can light the Signs of theZodiac. They get paid for that. Lighting the twilights[26]they have to do for their board and lodging and motivepower.”

Nimbus left off writing. “I think that will do,” he said,handing the pad to Billy.

The Meteor took the paper from Billy’s hand, Nimbusreleased the tail from the door and he shot forth into thenight.

Billy began to be very much distressed about the darkness,remembering his promise to his mother to be homefor dinner. Nimbus, noticing his troubled face and feelingbetter now that he had unburdened himself of his opinionof the Equine Ox, sat beside him and said cheerfully:

“Never mind, Billy, it’s always half dark up here.We’re out of the air, you know, and we have to have airto see the light through, just as your mother has to haveopera-glasses to see the play through. We’ll be home intime for dinner. Never fear.”

[27]At this assurance Billy felt much better, and becamevery eager to see the great fight that he knew would takeplace when they got down to the Equator and took part inthe effort to keep him from escaping.

But the motorman and the conductor were in no suchcheerful mood. They sat apart in a corner and talkedin whispers; and Billy, listening although he did not meanto, soon learned that they were talking about the SnowFairies.

“It’s them,” said the conductor, “that spills snow allover the tracks and ties up the lines in winter.”

Billy glanced out of the window. There, right beforehis eyes, he saw a great number of little people, clad inwhite uniforms, raking huge masses of what seemed to bewhite flowers on the upper side of a cloud. Through thedim half-light he watched them working away, with rakesand pitchforks, some of them piling the white flakes intogreat stacks, while others pulled long rows of them to theedge of the cloud and pushed them over the side.

Billy remembered that it was summer when he left homeand he wondered how it happened that snow-making wasgoing on; but following with his eyes the flakes that whirleddownward he saw a long chain of mountains far below.He knew, of course, that snow fell on mountains, even insummer time, so he understood.

[28]“I tell you what I’ll do,” the motorman was saying; “I’llgo out and back her sideways and we’ll run through ’em.That’ll knock ’em all off the cloud, and we won’t have nomore snow.”

Billy looked anxiously at Nimbus, who overheard, butonly chuckled. “Let ’em try it,” he said, “and see whathappens.”

Nimbus joined Billy at the window, and the motormanand the conductor, seeing that the Fairy’s back was turned,got up very quietly and went out on the front platform.

The motorman put his lever on the controller and, lookingaround carefully to make sure that he was not observed,reversed the power.

The car trembled, stopped, then began to go backwardwith a sidelong motion that took it right into the snowcloud.

Instantly the air grew cold, and the wind howled aroundthe trolley pole and rattled the windows.

Straight into a great pile of snow went the car, and theSnow Fairies, looking up, saw it coming and skipped awayin every direction.

There was a shock, snow flew in showers, then the carburied itself in a great white pile up to the window topsand stopped stock still.

Stamping and pawing the snow out of their eyes and[29]mouths, the motorman and conductor came back into thecar.

“Pleasant weather, gentlemen,” said Nimbus. “Looksa little like snow, however. Suppose you go out now andclear the track. You’re used to it.”

Angry, but too much ashamed of themselves to showtheir feelings, the motorman and the conductor got shovelsfrom under the seats and went out to clear away a pathfor the car.

“It always pays best to let Nature take care of herself,as the boy said who sat on the volcano,” Nimbus observed.

“It will be a dreadful delay, though, and we are in sucha hurry to get to the Equator,” said Billy.

“Oh, no, there will be no delay at all! The Cloud isgoing right in our direction just as fast as we were. We’llwarm up, however, for it’s a trifle cold,” said Nimbus. Andtaking out the sunbeam he had brought with him fromthe lilac bush, he hit a piece out of it and handed it toBilly.

“Eat it,” he said. “Nothing so stimulating in coldweather as a sunbeam. We’ll just sit here and wait foran answer to my telegram. And you can act acquaintedwith the sky people.”

Billy looked out of the window into the sky. Was ittrue, he wondered, that the Sun and Moon were reallysky people?

“Really people!” said Nimbus. “Well I should say theyare. And all the Clouds are, too. You see that bunch overthere? Well, that is Mrs. Pink-Cloud and Mrs. White-Cloudand Mrs. Pearl-Cloud and Mrs. Mackerel-Cloudand Mrs. Yellow-Cloud sitting together and sewing onparty dresses for their children to go to the Star children’sbirthday party. It’s warm over there where they are.”

“Named! Of course they are! And every Star, too.But nobody can remember them but their own mother,Mrs. Moon. Even their father, Mr. Sun, gets confusedsometimes and mixes the boys’ names with the girls’.”

“Just as much people as you are,” answered Nimbusseriously. “Old General Gray-Cloud and old GeneralThunder-Cloud are great fighters and have awful battles.You can hear them down on the Earth sometimes. Itsounds like thunder and looks like lightning from whereyou live, but from where we live—Oh, my!”

“Dear me,” said Billy, “how very interesting! And dothe mothers teach their children to behave the way ourmothers do on the Earth, or are they allowed to do as theyplease in the sky?”

“Well, you do show your ignorance!” said Nimbus, withsuch severity that Billy quite blushed for himself. “Why[31]let me tell you what I saw only yesterday when I was underthe lilac bush waiting for you.”

“Why, certainly I did. I saw you having such a stupidtime with a geography lesson which I knew I could makeso easy for you that I said to myself: ‘I’ll justwait until I have him all to myself and then I’ll showhim!’”

“That was very kind of you,” said Billy, “and I amsure that I shall never forget anything I have seen.”

“That’s just the way with me,” said Nimbus; “so whatI saw of the Cloud children I will tell to you, and thenit will be just the same as if you had seen it.”

“So it will,” said Billy, who by this time had got to havegreat faith in the Geography Fairy.

Billy thought intently for a moment. He knew he hadheard something about clouds and mist and heat and cold,but for the life of him he couldn’t remember when anybodyasked him. That is what makes examinations sohard. You know, but you can’t remember.

“Ah, ha!” said Nimbus. “You can’t think, can you?Well, I’ll tell you, and you’ll never forget this reason. Theother day, when their mothers were all sitting and sewing,the Cloud children——”

“Well, there happened to be Pinkie Pink-Cloud andGoldie Gold-Cloud and Pearlie Pearl-Cloud. They askedtheir mothers if they could float over Central Park andwatch the Earth children at play. Their mothers said yes,so away they went. At first it was great fun to watch, forit was Mayday and all the children were marching about intheir pretty white dresses while nursemaids and fräuleinsand mademoiselles by the dozen, and a few mothers, werelooking on.

“Then Pinkie and Goldie and Pearlie began to play tagamong themselves, nor was it very long before Pinkie saidthat Goldie did not tag her when she said she did, andPearlie took sides; so in one moment those little sunnyfaces grew black with anger and presently they began tocry as hard as ever they could.”

“The next thing that happened was that their motherslooked up from their sewing and saw the dark spot over thepark, where, a few minutes ago, it had all been bright andsunny. They knew what had happened, for in April andMay the Cloud children are easily upset and cry if youpoke your finger at them. So they floated over to the parkand, instead of asking the children what the matter was,[33]as most mothers would have done, Mrs. Gold-Cloud toldthe children to look down at the park.”

“And what did they see?” asked Billy, who never beforehad thought of looking at the Earth children through theeyes of the clouds.

“Why, the rain spoiling all the pretty white dresses andthe children all stopping their play and rushing about forshelter.”

“Because Mrs. Gold-Cloud told the children how tearsand black looks on their faces always spoiled the pleasure ofsomebody else, and how smiles and sweet looks and lots oflove in the heart brings happiness. When she said this, theCloud children dried their tears on their mothers’ cloudhandkerchiefs and began to smile, and when Pinkie andGoldie kissed each other, the whole sky brightened up. Soeverything got sunshiny again, and of course the rainstopped as soon as the tears were dried, so in five minutesthe little Earth children were running about again ashappy as lambs. And the sight of their happiness madethe Cloud children glad they had not been so selfish as toquarrel long.”

[34]“They must be nice children,” said Billy thoughtfully.“That story sounds the way my mother tells things.”

“Thank you for telling me,” said Billy politely. “It is avery nice story and I sha’n’t forget it. I’ll have lots ofthings to tell when I get back. What are you going to doabout the Equator?”

“Hello!” The last exclamation was directed at theMeteor, who suddenly appeared through the snow bankand, panting for breath, handed Nimbus a message whichBilly read over his shoulder.

CHAPTER IV
THE EQUINE OX AND THE EVENING STAR

“I EXPECTED it,” said Nimbus with a sigh. “Imight have known the Equine Ox couldn’t hold him.”

“I don’t suppose it is any use to go to the Equatornow, is it?” asked Billy. “I don’t see how we can go thereif we don’t know where it is.”

“Well, we know where it was, and there’s where we’llgo,” snapped Nimbus. “I have a little speech to make tothe Equine Ox that he ought to hear.”

The motorman and the conductor had now got a nice,clean path shoveled through the snow, so they boarded thecar and it soon slid off the snow cloud and sped on again.

Presently Billy, looking downward, saw that they werecoming closer to the Earth all the time. And what a differentEarth it was from any he had ever seen outside of ageography! A curving coast-line laced with filmy surf laybelow him, and on the hills that rose from it he could seecountless palm trees, each with a little tuft at the top likethe long blades of blue grass about the edge of the gardenat home, well beyond the reach of the lawn mower.

“Gracious! We must be near where the Equator was,”[38]he exclaimed. “It looks like a conservatory outdoors downthere.”

“It’s not,” said Nimbus. “It’s the grandstand. That’swhere the procession of the Equine Oxen was to be held.”

“It will, if I have anything to do with it. Just becausewe never did have a procession without an Equator is noreason we shouldn’t have one. Besides, now that there’sno Equator to watch, unless they parade, those good-for-nothingcreatures won’t earn their cuds.”

The car by this time was grating on a hillside, and soonbrought up between a couple of slender palm trees.

“I’ve been expecting you,” said a voice—a sad voice thatseemed to come from directly above the car.

Looking out of the car window, Billy saw a bright lightamong the branches of the tree—a light that surroundedlike a halo the figure of a very pretty girl.

“Yes,” said the Evening Star, “it is I. I came to complainabout the Equine Ox. He’s very disconsolate, andhe’s singing continually. I wish you’d stop him.”

Billy was very much surprised to find the Evening Starall alone. He was about to ask Nimbus why it was whenshe said:

“You see, Papa—he’s the Sun—never comes out at[39]night; and Mrs. Moon, who’s my mamma, isn’t up yet, soI had to come alone. Is there anything else you’d like toknow, little boy?”

Billy was very much abashed at thus having a questionanswered before he had asked it, and especially by a younglady whom he had never met. But there was one thing hewanted to know very much, so he said politely:

“Yes, thank you. I should like to know why the EquineOx sings when he is unhappy.”

“Oh, that’s so people can tell he’s the Equine OX,” saidthe Evening Star. “He always does things backward.When he’s very angry he rolls on the ground and roarswith laughter. When he’s pleased about anything heweeps bitterly, and when he’s unhappy he sings.”

“There he is now,” said Nimbus, who had been listeningintently. “Don’t you hear him?”

Billy heard something that first sounded like a long-drawn-outmoo, but which he soon recognized as a veryfamiliar air.

“Us, too?” inquired the motorman and conductor. “Wedon’t want to be left alone in these here foreign parts.”

“Yes,” said Nimbus, “come ahead!” and he led the waydown a winding pathway that opened through thetrees.

The singing grew louder and louder as they proceeded,and shortly they came out into a little open space overgrown[40]with flowers and surrounded by a very dense tropicalgrowth. In the center of it stood a creature that lookeda little like an ox, a little like a horse, and very much likea map of the solar system. Billy and the street-car menstopped at a signal from Nimbus. The Equine OX wassinging.

Directly the song was finished Nimbus strode up tothe Equine Ox and, shaking his fist angrily at him, demanded:

“That’s the question,” said the Equine Ox; “where is he?Who knows the answer?” Then seeing Billy, he added:“Maybe you do!”

“Pay no attention to him,” said Nimbus. “He’s merelytrying to avert suspicion from himself.” Then turning tothe Equine Ox, he proceeded: “Tell us how he got away.Be quick, there is no time to lose.”

“Oh, yes, there is,” said the Equine Ox; “any quantityof it! I lose a great deal every day and hope to lose agreat deal more. As for finding time, now that isanother——”

“Well, you see, it was this way. Night fell on the tropicsand the tropics broke.”

[42]“What is the gentleman angry about?” uneasily askedthe Equine Ox, who always laughed when he was angry.

“Then a few waves broke,” continued the Equine Ox,“and then day broke and, well—what could the Equatordo but break, too?”

“Neither did I,” said the Equine Ox. “Far be it fromme to sit on an Equator when it is going anywhere.”

“So it’s completely gone, has it?” asked Nimbus.“Which way did it go?”

“I’ll answer the last,” volunteered the Evening Star.“It went south and slipped off the South Pole. Isaw it.”

The motorman and conductor gathered around. “Jabhim in the ribs with the crank handle,” suggested the conductor.“It’s the way we do when they faints on the car.”

Nimbus was now himself, and a very energetic little selfhe was. First he placed the conductor and the motormanin charge of the Equine Ox, with orders not to let himout of their sight.

“He must be here to-morrow,” he said, “or the processioncannot go on, and if the procession does not go onit will always be summer and the sea will dry up.”

The motorman and the conductor were scarcely eagerto undertake the charge, but something in Nimbus’s mannerconvinced them that it was necessary, so they consented.

“You,” said Nimbus to the Evening Star, “will pleasego and tell your father that the Equator is off the Earthand that I will try to catch him.”

“And you,” he said to Billy, “come with me. As soonas the Equator is off the Earth, he will shrink up to thesize of a barrel hoop, and the meanness in his dispositioncondensed into that small space will make a perfect fiendof him. He is liable to drop right down on us this veryminute and burn us into a cinder before you can say ‘JackRobinson.’ He gets so hot when he’s angry that he hasbeen known to set an iceberg on fire. By the way,” headded, “how quickly can you say ‘Jack Robinson’?”

[44]“I thought so!” said Nimbus. “You’d have been dryashes before you got to a-c-k.”

Hardly had he left off speaking when a Meteor dashedin with a message from the Dog Star.

“Equator coming back to Earth vowing vengeanceagainst Nimbus and Evening Star,” it said.

CHAPTER V
IN PURSUIT

“FIRST of all,” said Nimbus, “we must find the Rays.Then we’ll go down to the Meteor farm and putall the Meteors who are off watch or on part time,to work doing scout duty.”

“They are the Sun’s private messengers. They do all hisregular work for him, such as making things grow, andarranging the weather, and building the bridges——”

“Yes, rainbow bridges. How could we fairies get overthe ocean if it wasn’t for them?”

“Yes, we might, if trolley cars grew on trees in jungleslike monkeys, but they don’t.”

“The Rays,” continued Nimbus, “are named Violet, Indigo,Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. Get themall together and they make a beautiful, clear, white light,and we’ll need such a light to find the Equator.”

[48]There was a rustling of the trees behind them and a sadvoice called out: “I wish you’d take me with you. I’mafraid to stay alone.”

Billy looked quickly around and saw the Evening Starstanding at a little distance, looking very pretty indeedin the soft light that seemed to sift out of her whitefrock.

“Oh, nonsense!” said Nimbus. “We’ve men’s work here.You don’t want to go anyway!”

Two bright tears stood in the Evening Star’s eyes andglistened in the glow that surrounded her. Nimbusclapped his hands in delight.

“The Rays—all of them. Don’t you see them hiding inthose teardrops? Come, come. No more delay! I’ve importantwork for you.”

As he spoke, there suddenly appeared before him sevenlively little chaps, each clad from head to foot in his ownprismatic color, and all dancing excitedly about theground.

“Go tell the old man that the Equator has got away,”commanded Nimbus. “And then come back here andmake us a searchlight. If he isn’t back here where hebelongs by to-morrow there’s no telling what will happen.”

Without a word the Rays suddenly united in a brilliant[49]shaft of white light and whisked away over the treetops.

As they vanished Billy thought he heard a sob, andglancing about, saw the Evening Star sitting in thebranches of a low palm and crying as if her heart wouldbreak.

“Oh, I’m afraid! I’m afraid!” she wailed. “If theEquator should come back and find me here when you’regone he’ll turn me into a Comet; I just know he will!”

“There is danger of that,” he said. “Yes, he wouldbe just about contemptible enough to do that verything.”

“Easiest thing in the world. He has only to set fire toher hair, and it would stream out behind her in a fan offlame. Then she’d be so frightened that she’d go wanderingoff through space and become a Comet.”

“Then,” said Billy, “I think we had better take MissEvening Star with us, don’t you? Unless her father, Mr.Sun, can look after her.”

“My dear boy,” he said, “don’t you know that the Sunnever does any night work of any kind? Besides, justnow he’s busy on the other side of the world. Yes, we’lltake her with us.”

[50]So Nimbus and the Evening Star and Billy went offto the yard where the Meteors off duty and on part timewere assembled.

The inclosure, which was walled in by four fogs, wasfull of them, jumping hurdles, playing marbles, or racingaround after each other.

So busy were they at their sport that it was not untilNimbus had shouted himself hoarse that they paid theslightest attention to him.

“I don’t believe,” said Nimbus, “that you Meteors couldhear the rings of Saturn if they rang all at once. Did youknow that the Equator had escaped?”

“Goodness, no!” said the Meteor, and instantly shotabout among his fellows spreading the dreadful news.

“You must go find the Equator,” said the Fairy authoritatively.“The Rays have gone to notify the Sun.Ten of you will come with us. The other six million willscatter about the universe and look for him. Let me knowthe instant you see him, and stop him if he starts to comeback to the Earth.”

“Yes, sir,” said the Meteors in a breath. With a greatcrackling noise they shot away into the void, each takinga different direction so that their going looked like a splendidshower of rockets on the night of the Fourth ofJuly.

[51]“I suppose,” said Nimbus, “that the next thing to dois to build a tower so we can see what is going on in thesky.”

“But there isn’t,” said the Evening Star, “so we’d betterfind a hill to climb.”

“I saw a beautiful hill as we were coming here,” saidBilly. “It had a white top, and stood out ever so high overthe others.”

So the whole party set out through the trees for thevolcano, and in an hour or two were standing on a greatlava field looking up at the dark sky, which seemed fairlyalive with fiery-tailed meteors hurrying here, there andeverywhere on their search for the Equator.

Billy had just settled himself with his back against acomfortable boulder when he noticed right over hishead an object which resembled a great, luminous doughnut.“I wonder what that is,” he said, pointing upward.

The Evening Star, quite exhausted with the tramp upthe mountain, had been sitting with her bright face in her[52]hands. At Billy’s words she glanced up, and a terrifiedscream brought Nimbus to his feet.

“There he is!” shouted Nimbus excitedly. “He’s comingthis way, and we can never capture him.”

CHAPTER VI
ON THE PASSIVE VOLCANO

OF COURSE there was but one thing to do, and thatwas to escape as quickly as possible. Even Nimbus,powerful as he was, couldn’t control a runawayEquator single-handed, and if the Evening Star were everturned into a comet it would take years of patient efforton the part of her parents to turn her back into a Staragain.

Nimbus looked swiftly about him for a second, and thenhe said: “Fortunately, this is not an active volcano, so we’llslip into the crater.”

He led the way toward a cavelike opening right in thesummit of the mountain—an opening which led downwarddiagonally, so that it afforded ample shelter.

Billy hesitated. He had heard about volcanoes, and thethought of bearding it in its crater was very terrifying.

That reassured Billy, and when he was safe inside thecrater he asked what a passive volcano was.

“It’s one that isn’t active. There are two kinds of verbs[56]and two kinds of volcanoes—active and passive. Thefire in this one has been banked, so it’s perfectlysafe.”

Billy was still a little uneasy, and he was by no meanscheered by a sound of dull rumbling that came up out ofthe depths of the crater.

He had little time to worry about this new danger, however,for just then the crater became filled with terrificheat, and its dark recesses were illumined by a brilliantglare.

Billy’s eyes were dazzled at first, then right above himhe made out the circular form of the Equator staringblankly down at him.

“Oh, I am lost!” cried the Evening Star, and with aseries of leaps she disappeared down the crater.

“The goose, she’ll be burned to death!” said Nimbus, andstarted after her.

There was a sound of falling gravel, a sharp patter offootsteps, and then silence.

Billy knew that it would be foolish to follow, so hequietly waited for something to happen.

The Equator, meanwhile, was getting a little more accustomedto the darkness. As he peered about he mutteredto himself, and Billy caught the words: “I hope she hasn’tgot away. There’s no one left but the Equine Ox, andyou couldn’t turn him into a Comet any more than youcould turn him out of a pasture.”

[57]“You ought not to turn anybody into a Comet,” saidBilly. “It isn’t polite.”

“My name is Billy,” said the little boy, “and I am afriend of the Evening Star.”

“Do you think you could be turned into a Comet, Billy?”asked the Equator solicitously.

“I’m afraid you couldn’t,” grumbled the Equator.“Perhaps you can tell me where I can find the EveningStar.”

“Oh, come now, don’t be rude. I won’t turn her into avery big Comet, you know.”

“I don’t care,” said Billy. “I shall not tell you where sheis, and I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

“I was driven to it,” said the Equator; “when the Geographersmade me, they wanted to be sure to have enoughof me to go around, and I’ve been going around ever since.It got so monotonous after a while that I simply had toget into mischief or explode.”

“Yes; the Equine Ox went to sleep and I broke ameridian and got away. It was quite oxidental, my escaping;I mean accidental.”

[58]“It cannot be very nice, being an Equator,” said Billythoughtfully; “but it would be far worse to be a Comet.”

“Oh, I don’t know!” said the Equator. “Comets onlyhave to get to a certain place once in two or three hundredyears, while an Equator has to be in one place always. I’mvery tired,” he said suddenly. “What do you usually dowhen you’re tired?”

“Why,” exclaimed Billy eagerly, “you lie down somewhere,then you close your eyes, then you think of sheepjumping through a fence and try to count them until youfall asleep.”

“But I can’t think of any sheep jumping through afence. I never saw a sheep, nor a fence. Do you supposeit would do just as well to count hippopotamuses jumpingthrough a swamp?”

To his great joy the Equator settled down on the summitof the volcano and closed his eyes. He breathed hardand regularly for a little, and then, as one eye opened, hesaid: “What do you do when the third and seventh andeleventh hippopotamus is a rhinoceros? Count him, too?”

[59]Presently he opened them again. “Look here,” he exclaimed,“I’ve counted all the hippopotamuses and rhinocerosesthere are. Now what do I do?”

“Count the ants,” said Billy with a sudden inspiration,and the Equator troubled him no more.

Billy was delighted. The Equator’s lips moved rapidlyfor some minutes, and Billy slipped quietly down into thecrater to find Nimbus and the Evening Star to tell themto hurry and make their escape.

The crater forked in many directions. It seemed hopelessto explore any one of them because his friends mighthave taken another.

At last he determined to make sure that when they didcome back they would have no trouble in escaping.

Billy’s hands went to his pockets, and when they cameout they brought a quantity of fish-line, which he alwayscarried for emergencies.

He deftly tied the line to a huge stone, making surethat the knot Was fast, and then very cautiously slippedit through the center of the Equator, making a loose knot,but one that would be reasonably sure to hold him. He[60]doubled and redoubled the string, and when the job wasdone stood back and surveyed it with considerable pride.

Then, assured that the Equator was at his mercy, hebegan to hope for him to wake up so that he could enjoyhis triumph. He even coughed once or twice in the hopeof awakening his captive, but the Equator was very tiredand it seemed impossible to arouse him.

At last, unable longer to restrain his impulse, Billy tooka sharp stick and poked the Equator smartly once, twice,three times.

The sleeper’s eyes opened, and he tried to yawn andstretch, but the fish-line restrained him. He looked aboutwrathfully and espied Billy.

Instantly his dull glowing skin became white hot withrage, and the line melted away like straw.

The Equator sprang to his feet, his whole circular bodyshining like the iron which the blacksmith has just takenfrom the forge.

“You shall pay for this, young man!” he cried. “I maynot be able to turn you into a Comet, but I can maroon youon the Polar Star, which will be quite as satisfactory.”

CHAPTER VII
JACK FROST

IF YOU’VE never had an Equator sweep down onyou, of course you cannot understand in the least howfrightened Billy was. Even the Equine Ox grew graywith fear when the Equator was angry, and the EquineOx was seldom disturbed by anything but indigestion in hisfour stomachs.

As for Billy, he had never been really frightened before,excepting the time he fell into a tar barrel, and lookingback upon it, that experience now seemed a very tameaffair.

He shrank back and waited for the worst. To his surpriseit did not happen. For just as the Equator was rushingtoward him, just as he was trying to say Jack Robinson,and say it so quickly that his life would be spared aninstant or two before he was turned to ashes, he heard avoice say:

Instantly the Equator, who had been white-hot, turneda sort of sickly yellow, then faded to dull red, and finallyto a bluish green. In the meantime he had stopped sweeping[64]down on Billy and was motionless, save for a tremorthat ran through his circular frame.

Between Billy and the Equator stood a wiry little fellowdressed all in fluffy white, with a white cap to match. Inhis hand he held what seemed to be a very straight icicle,which glittered with all the hues of the rainbow.

The Equator glowered upon the newcomer for someseconds before he growled huskily: “Jack Frost!”

“Perfectly correct,” said the stranger cheerfully. “Ialways did admire a good memory for names.”

“What are you doing here?” demanded the Equatorsulkily, and Billy saw to his joy that he was now in no furtherdanger of attack.

“Nothing that I am ashamed of,” returned Jack Frost,“which is more, it seems to me, than you can say.”

“What was he doing?” asked Jack Frost, turning suddenlyto Billy. Before the little boy could answer theEquator with a flop or two rose in the air, circled once ortwice over the trees and sailed rapidly away.

“Umph!” said Jack Frost. “That’s different. Let’s goand see about it.”

Billy thought he had seen all of the Equator he caredto, but Jack Frost insisted on watching that ill-tempered[65]creature, and so Billy followed him to the very top of thevolcano where they could get a clear view of the horizon.

They saw the Equator making off a mile or two away,and Jack Frost, taking Billy by the arm, started down themountain at a brisk trot. As they hurried along JackFrost said:

“No,” said Jack Frost, “I really am not a bad fellow.Your father probably holds it against me because I freezethe water pipes sometimes, but think how the plumber’spoor little children love me for it.”

“Sometimes,” continued Jack Frost, “I pinch little boys’fingers, but that is only to remind them that they forget toask their mothers if they can go skating.”

“Again,” said Jack Frost, “I nip flowers. I do thatto warn them to go back into the ground, because winteris coming.”

“They do, though. People often object to things thatare good for them, like going to bed early, and washingtheir hands and geography.”

“I cannot imagine a beautiful song about the Equator,”said Jack Frost. “See what you think of mine.” And seatinghimself on the edge of the cliff they had been skirting,with his heels hanging over space, he sang:

“Thank you,” said Jack Frost; “but what has become ofthe Equator in the meantime?”

“You are a very nice little boy,” said Jack Frost, patting[68]Billy on the head, “but we have just got to find thatEquator. There is no telling what he may be doing.”

“There is always time,” said Jack Frost coldly. “Timeis everywhere. The supply is inexhaustible.”

“Never mind,” said Jack Frost kindly. “I dare say itwill turn out all right, like the farmer’s wagon that met theautomobile. Anyway, here comes the Geography Fairy.He ought to have some tidings.”

Looking over the edge of the cliff, Billy saw Nimbus approaching.He explained afterward that the crater whichhe and the Evening Star had followed, led right throughthe volcano and out of the cliff at the bottom.

Jack Frost hailed him, and Nimbus climbed up, biddinghis train of Meteors wait until he returned.

“Have either of you seen anything of the Evening Star?I lost track of her when we got out of the crater.”

[69]“So she was,” said Nimbus, “but she said she thoughtshe’d like to fly once more, and sailed off to pay the Moona visit.”

“He has,” said Jack Frost. “He was just about todestroy this little boy when I stopped him. He’s afraidof me.”

“More than of any one else in the whole world,” saidNimbus. “But where do you suppose he is now?”

Out of the darkness above them shone a bright speckthat grew larger and larger. As it drew nearer Billy sawthat it was a Meteor, a new Meteor which he had never seenbefore.

“Hey, there!” shouted Nimbus, who had seen him thesame moment Billy did; “any message for me?”

“Yes,” puffed the Meteor, who was not within easy talkingdistance. “Miss Evening Star is being chased by the[70]Equator, and has only got about a thousand miles’start.”

CHAPTER VIII
THE COMPASS

“STRANGE that you fellows never forget to ask foryour meals,” said Jack Frost tartly. “Your memorynever fails you there.”

“Let us not waste time scolding them,” said Nimbus.“The important thing is to find where the Equator andthe Evening Star have gone.”

“Very true,” said Jack Frost. “We’ll establish headquartersimmediately, and send out scouts.”

Then he led the way to a little clump of palms whichwas at the foot of a hill just below them.

The Meteors, like a great flock of fireflies, followedalong in their wake, and when they stopped they lined upfor orders.

“Now,” said Nimbus, addressing them, “how manypoints of the compass are there?”

“He’s right,” said Jack Frost. “A large compass wouldhave more points than a small one. There’s more roomon it.”

“Tell off a thousand Meteors,” he said, “to count all thepoints on the largest compass, and then order a scout togo in the direction pointed by each point. That ought toget them.”

“Good,” declared Nimbus. “Go to work, you fellows,and carry out orders. The first one who discovers them,notify Aurora Borealis, and she’ll flash the signal downto us.”

The Meteors, who were always active when there waswork to be done, shot forth on their errands.

“How long do you suppose it will be before the Equatorcan catch the Evening Star?” asked Billy.

“It all depends on whether or not they are both goingin the same direction,” replied Jack Frost.

Billy smiled. “Of course,” he said, “if they were goingin opposite directions he never would catch her.”

“Wrong,” said Jack Frost. “Supposing I started forthe South Pole and you started for the North Pole, andwe both kept on going in the same direction after we gotthere, what would happen?”

Billy thought a minute. “Oh, I see!” he cried; “we’dmeet on the opposite side of the earth.”

“We would,” said Jack Frost, “if we didn’t stop on[75]the way. The Equator has probably gone in the oppositedirection, intending to meet the Evening Star on the otherside of the world. That would surprise her.”

“In that case,” said Nimbus, “Jack Frost and I hadbetter start off in opposite directions and see which getsto the other side of the world first. The one who does canput a stop to this chase.”

“But we don’t know just which part of the other sidethey’re going to meet on,” objected Jack Frost.

“We can take a chance,” said Nimbus. “That’s whatthe Meteors will have to do, and we can beat them, becausewe have no tails to drag after us.”

Billy was a little troubled about this, but he was not theboy to admit that he was frightened, and, though his mouthtrembled a trifle and he winked a little more rapidly thanusual, he kept a brave face as his two friends each calleda cloud out of the sky and sailed away upon it.

He had stood there but a few minutes when he heardthe tinkling of a bell a little distance away. At first itrang slowly and at long intervals, then faster and faster,till at length it sounded like the triangle the man played inone corner of the orchestra in the theater at home.

Thinking there could be no harm in finding out wherethe sound came from, as the Equator was as little likely[76]to alight in one place as another, he listened very carefully,then proceeded slowly toward the tinkling sound.

Soon he came out into the very clearing where the trolleycar had reached the earth, and there stood the trolley carwith the face of the Equine Ox protruding from the frontdoor and wearing a very unhappy expression.

Confronting the Equine Ox was the conductor, who waswaving his hands and shouting, while the motorman wasstooping over, a little way off, gathering up a smooth roundstone about the size of an egg.

Meanwhile the tinkle of the bell sounded continuously,and the Equine Ox wriggled and writhed as if very muchdispleased with his imprisonment.

“Oh, don’t do that,” pleaded Billy. “You might hurthim. And he isn’t doing anything bad, I’m sure.”

“He isn’t, isn’t he?” shouted the motorman. “Ain’t helashing his tail?”

“What of that?” asked Billy. “All animals lash theirtails except bears and saddle horses and fox-hunters, whichhaven’t any tails to lash.”

“But his tail is caught in the bell rope,” said the motorman,hurling the stone at the Equine Ox. The stone brokea window, and although it did not reach its target, it[77]annoyed the creature so that he struggled more franticallythan before, and the bell jingled furiously.

“Stop,” cried the conductor excitedly. “It’s getting tooexpensive for me.”

“Yes, expensive. Every time he wiggles his tailthat way he rings up a fare, and he’s rung up morethan thirty-seven dollars’ worth already. I’ve counted’em all.”

Billy understood why the motorman and the conductorwere so worried. The tail of the Ox had become entangledin the rope that led to the fare register, and every tinkleof the bell meant a fare recorded.

At first he was shocked to think of this wasteful extravagance,but then he recollected that as the car was not on aregular run the fares couldn’t really be counted against themotorman and the conductor.

“Well, when we run the car into the barn they’ll chargeme with these fares,” said the conductor. “The car willhave been away so long that they’ll be disgusted if it hasnot earned any money.”

“I tell you,” said Billy; “when Nimbus comes back I’llget him to enchant the register so it will only charge up the[78]fares you have really collected. That will make it allright.”

This appeased the motorman and the conductor, andin answer to Billy’s questions they explained how theEquine Ox got into the car.

When they were left alone with him he had behaved verybadly, rolling on the ground and laughing very heartily,which proved, as they had been told by Nimbus, that hewas furiously angry.

But they prevented this by tying the trolley ropetightly to his horn and securing him to the car, andthen, fearing that the rope might break, they hit upon astratagem.

They talked eagerly about the comforts and coolnessof the inside of the car, until the curiosity of the EquineOx outran his discretion and he insisted upon going in.

Knowing that he was governed by contraries, they triedto prevent his doing so. This, as they expected, made himall the more determined, and he forced his way past theminto the car.

But once inside he found it impossible to get out, andthen it was that he began the lashing of his tail, which hadresulted in the ringing up of so many fares.

Billy agreed with the motorman and the conductor thatthe best place for the Equine Ox was in the trolley car,[79]for if he tried too hard to escape they had only to shutthe door to keep him there.

So Billy sat down and told the trolley men everythingthat had happened since he left them, and they became asexcited as he was about the chances of the Evening Star’sescape from the Equator.

“I wish,” said Billy, “that the Evening Star would comepast here right now. We’d get Nimbus to enchant thetrolley car again, and away we’d go back home with her.”

“Sure,” said the conductor. “We could use her for aheadlight on the way home.”

They were all busily discussing what could be done tosecure the Evening Star against the Equator when theyhad her in Billy’s home when a light shone above the treesand soon a Meteor dropped among them.

“I just met the Equator going west-nor’west,” he said.“Where’s Nimbus?”

“In that case,” bellowed the Equine Ox, “I’ll go sou’-sou’east,”and he walked calmly away in that direction,tearing out the forward end of the trolley car as he went.

CHAPTER IX
THE TRAIL OF THE RUNAWAY

WITH wild cries the conductor and the motormanran after the Equine Ox, but although he appearedto be walking, he went at a tremendousspeed, and soon they were compelled to give up thechase.

“Oh! Oh!” wailed Billy, who was terribly distressed atthe escape of the Equine Ox, “I wish there was somethingI could do. But I am so small that I am absolutely uselessaround here.”

There was a cracking of branches close at hand, and toBilly’s astonishment and delight the Equine Ox reappeared.

The motorman and the conductor started forward, butthe Equine Ox lowered his horns.

“Never mind that now,” he said to them. “I will giveyou due notice of my next movements, and on the wholeI don’t think I will go at all. I don’t think the Equatorwill come this way, at all events.”

“My eyes are honest,” said the Equine Ox. “Theynever deceived me in my life. But as I was saying, whyare you so sorry that you’re small?”

“I’ll try not to be sorry any more,” said Billy, when thesong was finished.

“That’s right,” said the Equine Ox; “and now, if thegentlemen don’t mind, I’d like to go back into the trolleycar. It fitted me perfectly, and it was such fun ringingthat bell.”

“The trolley car’s broke,” said the conductor. “And ifit wasn’t I wouldn’t take a chance on having you ring upany more fares.”

[86]“Very well,” said the Equine Ox, “then we might aswell sit quietly and await the reports of the Meteors.They’ll be coming in very soon now.”

But it was not a Meteor who first arrived. It was JackFrost and Nimbus, coming in from opposite directionsalmost at the same time. Both had been clear around theworld, they said, and neither had seen a sign of the Equatoror the Evening Star.

“I suppose,” said Billy, when this dismal report wasreceived, “that we ought to notify the Sun.”

“I sent the Rays to notify him,” said Nimbus. “But Idon’t think it will do any good. He can only travel sofast anyway, not more than a million miles a minute, andthat would not do any good.”

“No,” said the Meteor. “In fact I had forgotten allabout them in the excitement.”

“Why,” said the Meteor, “the most astonishing thingsare happening. In Chicago grapefruits are growing onWabash Avenue, monkeys are swarming up the TribuneBuilding on Madison Street, and they are raising tobaccoand watermelons on Drexel Boulevard.”

“Gracious,” said Jack Frost, “and this is the middle ofJanuary! What can that mean?”

“Great news,” sang out a voice overhead, and anotherMeteor settled in among them.

“Snow has all melted in Duluth,” he said, “and there isan unprecedented sale of palmleaf fans all through thatpart of the country.”

Before any one could express surprise at this astonishinginformation a third Meteor and a fourth alighted.

“It is ninety degrees in the shade in Winnipeg,” saidthe third Meteor, “and they are picking cocoanuts in Quebec.The baseball season has opened in Iceland.”

“Hotter still in Norway,” said the fourth Meteor, whohad just arrived; “oldest inhabitant never remembers suchsultry weather. Eskimos are now wearing mosquito netsinstead of furs, and they’re catching crocodiles in the ArcticOcean. The icebergs have begun to boil.”

“This won’t do!” cried Jack Frost excitedly. “All thework that I’ve been at for centuries is being undone. I’llsoon have to organize a syndicate to attend to my businessif this keeps up. Whatever can have happened?”

“Great schools of whales are passing Cape Nome,” hesaid, “all going north. They’re picking strawberries offthe tundras there, and they are advertising hot springs forrheumatism in a glacier.”

Nimbus, who had been sitting with knitted brows, suddenlyleaped to his feet, and slapped the conductor on theback with such violence that that gentleman fell forwardagainst the Equine Ox.

“I know what it is,” shouted Nimbus. “The Equator isup there. That’s what’s making all this trouble!”

“Then far be it from me to stay here,” said Jack Frost,preparing to start at once. “I’m not going to have all mygood icebergs and glaciers melted like ice cream. It tookme countless centuries to make some of them.”

“Oh, never mind your old icebergs and glaciers,” saidNimbus. “The point is that we’ve located the Equatorand we can stop him before he catches the Evening Star.He can only thaw a radius of a few miles at one time, nowthat he’s shrunk so, so you don’t need to worry at all abouthis undoing your work.”

“We certainly must,” said Nimbus, “and as soon as possible.I expect Aurora Borealis will be reporting him atany time now.”

At that exact moment the sky lighted up with pink[89]splendor that waved and flickered and danced over theheavens.

“Please,” said Billy, who was intensely excited, “may Igo, too? I should dearly love to help catch him.”

“Why, yes, I guess so,” said Nimbus. “I’ll enchant thetrolley car again and we’ll all go in that.”

The trolley car had been very badly damaged by theEquine Ox, but Nimbus merely tapped it with his wandand it became whole again. The motorman regarded himopen-mouthed.

“I guess she’ll hold together now,” said Nimbus. “Comeon, Jack Frost; come on, Billy,” and he led the way intothe car.

The conductor and the motorman took their places, andthe Equine Ox at the last moment crowded into the reardoor. There was scarcely room for him, but Nimbus didnot care to lose any time in putting him out.

The car was speedily got under way and soon was merrilysailing along in the direction of the North Pole.

CHAPTER X
WHERE NIGHT IS SIX MONTHS LONG

“IT IS a good thing that both the Evening Star andthe Equator shine,” said Billy. “We can find themso easily in the dark.”

“Oh, but there will be at night!” said Billy confidently.“It is always dark at night. It has to be or you wouldn’tknow it was night.”

“But there won’t be any night for six months where weare going,” said Jack Frost. “There never is at the NorthPole.”

“Gracious!” said Billy; “that must be dreadful. Anddo the days last for six months, too?”

“To be sure they do. If you ask a boy to come to yourhouse to spend the afternoon at the North Pole he staysfor three months.”

“It must be terrible when the baby has the colicall night,” said Billy thoughtfully. “That happensoften at our house, and Papa has to walk the floor withhim.”

“I don’t know much about babies,” said Jack Frost,[94]“but I suppose they would stop crying before morning.Maybe they’d be satisfied crying for a month or two if theyweren’t interrupted.”

“There’s an iceberg,” said Nimbus, who had beenkeeping a lookout. “We ought to be getting there ina little while now. We are running into a dawn anyway.”

To the southward Billy noticed a faint grayish streakin the sky, and soon he could see the white caps that thebreakers always wear to keep their heads warm on windydays.

They were going very fast. Little white specks thatseemed to be flying past beneath them he now saw wereicebergs, and by-and-by these began to appear in greatnumbers, dotting the sea like schools of tiny islands in alldirections.

Although the light was growing brighter all the time, hewas still aware of a faint flickering glow to the northward,and this his friends told him was Aurora Borealis flashingthe news that the Equator and the Evening Star were stillin the neighborhood.

“I wish this thing would hurry,” said Nimbus impatiently.“We are not going more than five hundred milesan hour now. Mere dawdling, I call it.”

[95]“Can’t tell,” said Nimbus. “Depends on whether we aregoing in their direction or not.”

“Look there!” he shouted. “Just look there. It took mecenturies to make that glacier, and now look at it. Isn’tthat a shame?”

Below them, where a range of snowy mountains skirtedthe sea, they saw a long dark streak which, when moreclosely observed, proved to be a mountain area entirelybared of snow and leading like a great broad road to thenorth.

“That’s what that wretched Equator has been doing,”said Jack Frost sadly. “He’s spoiled a glacier that was awork of art—almost my masterpiece. I suppose when Iget up to the North Pole I’ll find he has melted that. Andif he has, it’ll spoil. You cannot possibly keep a NorthPole unless you keep it on ice.”

“But,” cried Nimbus, who plainly did not shareJack Frost’s annoyance, “we can trace him now.That is where he must have lighted. Let’s go downthere and see if we can find any trace of the EveningStar.”

He had hardly spoken when the car began rapidly todescend, and presently it was resting on a mountain topbetween two tall ice cliffs.

“That was my glacier,” he said. “My beautiful glacier—one[96]of the best I ever built. And now look at it. Ruined,utterly ruined.”

“Look here,” he said. “The Equator got here first. TheEvening Star did not come till later. So she is probablysafe, after all.”

“See,” said Nimbus. “When he got here and cleanedthe snow off”—Jack Frost grunted disgustedly—“theflowers began to spring up. Here are daisies and buttercupsand forget-me-nots and violets and trilliums, all growingwhere he turned the heat on.”

“But it does,” said Nimbus, “whether you see it or not.After they grew and blossomed somebody came and pickedlots of them. You can see where they have been snippedoff.”

“It must have been the Evening Star,” continued Nimbus.“She’s very fond of flowers, you know, and nobodyelse could get here.”

“Humph!” said Jack Frost; “there may be something inthat. But whether there is or not, I must rebuild thisglacier, or at least start it. I’ll begin by cutting down theseflowers.”

“Oh, please don’t!” said Billy. “They look so pretty[97]here among the snowdrifts. Let them just stay for a whileanyway.”

“All right,” said Jack Frost, “for a while, if it will pleaseyou. But I want you to understand that they are in theway of the loveliest glacier that——”

“Never mind your glacier,” shouted Nimbus. “I’vefound the track of the Evening Star, and she is going eastinstead of north.”

He had climbed up a crevice in one of the ice cliffs andwas studying the surface of a thin covering of new-fallensnow.

There before him were the dainty footprints of theEvening Star, and here and there a blossom apparentlyfallen from her bouquet lay scattered along thetracks.

“Now,” said Nimbus, “we will separate. Billy, you andI will go after the Evening Star, and you, Jack Frost, canfollow the open trail of the Equator and see if you can findhim. If you do find him, be sure not to let him getaway.”

“Then you’d better,” said the Equine Ox, sticking hishead out of one of the windows of the car. “Always rememberyourself last.”

“I don’t care to hear anything more from you,” said the[98]motorman. “It’s against the rules for a beast to talk, anyway.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that!” said a voice from a littlepeak just above them.

“Why not?” said the voice, as a great white Polar Bearthreaded his way down the slope toward the trolleycar.

But the motorman and the conductor seemed to thinkthere were many reasons why not. They hastily soughtshelter inside the car and closed the door after them, whilethe Equine Ox, with a snort of terror, pulled his head in soquickly that he brought away a part of the sash with hishorns.

“He’ll have to eat the side of the trolley car before hegets them,” said Nimbus.

“And by that time,” added Jack Frost, “he’ll be so fullhe won’t have any more room for them.”

So, leaving the bear busily gnawing at the sash board ofthe car, Nimbus, Jack Frost and Billy proceeded afoot ontheir quest.

Jack Frost set out on the Equator’s trail at a prodigiouspace, muttering to himself at each fresh discovery of aruined glacier or melted icefield.

Billy and Nimbus proceeded more slowly, for the track[99]of the Evening Star was not always distinct, and it wasplain that, here and there, when the going was hard, shehad sailed over the obstructing cliffs.

At the end of an hour the track disappeared altogether,nor could they find it, search as they might.

“This is where the track brought me,” replied JackFrost, and Billy and Nimbus saw that the trail through thesnow which had been melted by the Equator was within afew yards of them.

“That explains why the Evening Star stopped walking,”said Nimbus. “She saw the Equator headedover this way, and decided she had better travel a littlefaster.”

It had grown quite light, so that the flashes of Auroracould no longer seem to guide them, for they had quitefaded in the brighter dawn.

As Billy was very tired, Jack Frost and Nimbusagreed to sit down for a few minutes while he rested.In the mean time they sent a Meteor back for the trolleycar so that they might continue their journey moreeasily.

[100]“Walking is foolish, anyway,” said Jack Frost. “Whyany one who can fly should ever walk is a mystery to me.”

“Yes,” said Jack Frost, “and sometimes they overdo it,like the awkward auk. Did you ever hear about him?”

Jack Frost had just finished the last word when theMeteor came flying up to them.

“The Equator,” he said, “is at the North Pole, and theEvening Star is hiding under a glacier there. As soonas he melts the glacier——”

“Everything will be lost,” finished Nimbus. “Come on,there is not a moment to lose.”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” said Jack Frost, “but I’vegot to start those melted glaciers first; you know that’smy job, and I dare not neglect it.”

“All right,” said Nimbus. “Billy and I will go on withoutyou. Come on, Billy.”

Billy started to follow him, but Nimbus, in his excitement,had completely forgotten the little boy. He struckup a pace that Billy could not possibly keep, and soon[102]was out of hearing—a tiny speck on the vast white snowfieldthat stretched ahead toward the horizon.

“I guess I’ll have to go with you, Jack Frost,” saidBilly, turning sadly toward the spot where that worthyhad been standing.

But Jack Frost had vanished utterly, and there wasBilly deserted on a great Arctic snowfield, just at the mostexciting moment of the chase.

CHAPTER XI
THE END OF THE CHASE

IT MUST be admitted that there were tears in the littleboy’s eyes, tears that overflowed and made damp,messy places on his wide shirt-collar before they couldbe ordered back where they belonged.

They were tears of disappointment rather than fear,although certain thoughts of bears and walruses and evengreat sharp-billed Arctic owls insisted on following oneanother very rapidly through his mind.

But when five minutes passed and no bears nor otherterrifying creatures appeared Billy began to take heart.

“They’re sure to miss me,” he said aloud, for it was comfortingto hear a sound, even if it were only that of his ownvoice. “And when they do miss me they’ll find me. Theyare fairies, and they can find anything.”

“Anything but the Evening Star,” said a deep voice besidehim. “They haven’t found her yet, remember.”

Billy jumped almost out of his shoes, he was so startled,but he looked bravely in the direction of the voice just thesame, and to his amazement he saw the Equine Ox standingknee deep in snow and switching his tail vigorously as he[106]had learned to switch it in the tropics where the flies arebad. It made Billy laugh to see him do it in the ArcticCircle. But the Equine Ox said it was a warming process.

“I repeat,” said the Equine Ox, “that they haven’t foundthe Evening Star. That is chiefly because they refused toask me to help them.”

“But,” said Billy, “you are supposed to be back therewith the conductor and the motorman.”

“They were not interesting,” said the Equine Ox. “Nodoubt they are very worthy people, but they are not interesting.They talked about pie and cheese sandwiches andfried beefsteak and other things I do not care for, so I cameup here. I knew I would have to, anyway, before theyfound the Evening Star.”

“You asked,” said the Equine Ox placidly, “how in theworld I got here. I didn’t get here in the world. I gothere out of the world. I came by way of the BigDipper.”

“Oh!” said Billy; “I suppose I see. Anyway, it wouldnot be polite to keep on asking you questions, even if Idon’t understand.”

“An Equine Ox,” said the other, “can go anywhere hepleases, on the world or off of it. I hadn’t seen the Big[107]Dipper for some time, so I went up there, took a drink andcame down here. I know of nothing easier to do than that,do you?”

Billy knew of a great many things that would have beeneasier for him to do; so many, in fact, that it would betoo great a task to enumerate them, so he kept silent.

“Over across the lake on the other side of the mountain”—andthe Equine Ox pointed with his tail to thesouthward. “Just now she is frozen in a glacier.”

“Unless you count us,” said the conductor. “But I suppose,of course, you don’t.”

He was standing right at Billy’s elbow, and directlybehind him was the motorman.

“The Equine Ox ran away on us again,” explained theconductor, noticing Billy’s astonishment.

“He means off of them,” said the Equine Ox. “He’sdreadfully ungrammatical.”

[108]“Please don’t quarrel,” said Billy. “The Evening Staris in that glacier over yonder, and we must get her out ofit or she’ll freeze to death.”

Billy excitedly hurried to the glacier, and the others followedas fast as they could.

It was plain that somebody was confined withinits green depths, for a form could be distinctly seenby the whole party, who flattened their noses againstthe cliff-like side of the glacier and gazed eagerlyinto it.

“I think you had better begin to batter in the ice withyour horns,” said the motorman, “and we’ll follow you upand throw out the loose ice.”

The Equine Ox, thus addressed, fell energetically towork and soon had broken a fair-sized hole in the icewall.

Into it dashed the conductor and the motorman, and theythrew out the fragments of ice broken off by the sharphorns, while Billy, unable to do anything or to find anyplace to work at all, stood and wrung his hands in impatience.

It was a hard task, but the three kept steadily at it, andin a very little while only a thin wall separated them fromthe object of their search.

Suddenly the last film of ice was broken through, andthen they all fell back in blank amazement, for it[109]was not the Evening Star at all who came forth,but Jack Frost, looking rather chilly and very muchashamed.

“Jack Frost!” cried the Equine Ox. “Jack Frost, byall that’s astonishing!”

“Well, I hate to admit it,” said Jack Frost, “but I frozemyself in. It was all a mistake.”

“Mistakes will happen,” said the motorman. “The bestof us are sure to make ’em at times. I hate to run overdogs, but sometimes I do it.”

“You see,” said Jack Frost, “I was in a hurry to rebuildthat glacier, and I got so interested I didn’t leave myselfany place to get out till it was all done.”

“That’s the way men build things,” said Jack Frost.“It’s different with us Nature people. Did you ever seea tree built from the outside? Or a tomato?”

“And now,” continued Jack Frost, “I wish you wouldtell me the news. Has the Equator got the Evening Staryet?”

“Look here, Jack Frost,” said the Equine Ox impatiently,“that’s a nice question for you to be asking. If wehad been finding out, what would have become ofyou?”

“I suppose, of course, you knew it was I who was inhere when you started digging?” said Jack Frost.

“Back to the place where the Equator ought to be,” saidthe Equine Ox. “I’m tired of this business. I wish I’dnever come.”

“He means that he wishes he’d never came,” said theconductor to the motorman. “Somehow that sentimenthits me—hits me hard.”

“It hits me like a pile driver,” said the motorman. “Let’sgo back with him.”

“Hurry, if you are coming,” said the Equine Ox, whohad overheard them. “I’ll give you a lift as far as—wheredo you live, anyway?”

“All right,” said the Equine Ox; “climb on my backand we’ll be in Suburbia in time for supper. Jack Frost,you can send Nimbus back with the car.”

[111]“All right,” cried Jack Frost after them, “as soon as wefind the Equator.”

For a little while Billy, standing beside Jack Frost,watched them as they galloped off toward where the blueof the sky met the white of the snowfields. The EquineOx seemed not to mind the load he carried, and just asBilly turned away the conductor and the motorman werelighting their pipes preparatory to settling down for acomfortable ride. Then Jack Frost spoke to him and Billysaw them no more.

The snow mountain was only a little way off, and uponits summit some dark object seemed to move as if flutteringin the wind.

“You go ahead,” said Jack Frost, “and I’ll be with youin a minute. I forgot to stop up that hole you fellows dugin the glacier. If the Equator ever gets in there he’ll destroythe whole thing again in a second.”

Jack Frost turned back, and Billy set out alone for thesnow mountain, and soon got close enough to get a goodview.

At first he was overjoyed, for upon the mountain he saw[112]the Evening Star, and he felt that the long quest for herwas as good as ended.

A few steps further, however, brought him to the brinkof a circular abyss, too wide to leap over and far too deepto fall into. It shut him off completely from the peak thatrose in its center.

“Jack Frost will be able to make an ice bridge across itwhen he comes,” said Billy, so he patiently sat down towait.

Overhead sounded a crackling and snapping, and swiftlythe Equator dropped down from a great height and beganto hover directly over the head of the Evening Star.

Already the ice under her had begun to melt. Soon itwould melt away altogether and then Billy knew that theEquator, kept at a distance now by fear of the cold snow,would fall upon her and bear her away, and perhaps turnher into a Comet right before his horrified eyes.

CHAPTER XII
ACROSS THE RAINBOW

“OH, IF I could only get over there!” moaned Billy.He had not stopped to think what he would doif he were there. His eagerness to help the EveningStar was so keen that he was almost ready to leap theabyss before him. He even went to the brink and tried tocalculate his chances of getting across with a runningjump, but he saw that the best jumper in the world couldnot have got half way over before he would have tumbledinto the icy depths below. So, with a sigh, he sat downto think.

Billy did not mean to cry—he never meant to cry—butthe sight of the Equator hovering so closely over the EveningStar and melting down the snow mountain like a waxtaper brought an unbidden tear or two to his eyes, and theyrolled slowly down his cheeks.

One of them fell on his stocking, where it quickly froze,and Billy, looking at it disconsolately, observed that itshone with the hues of the rainbow in the light thrown offby the Equator.

Instantly the little people stood before him, and Red,who was their spokesman, asked him what he desired.

It was the work of a second. The little people all spranginto the air together and lo! in front of Billy stretched aslender rainbow bridge, leading from his feet to the snowmountain on which was the imprisoned Evening Star.And at each end was a great pot of yellow gold as largeas a preserve kettle.

Bravely Billy started to cross the bridge. It trembledviolently in the strong light, as rainbows will, for they areflimsy things at best. Billy hesitated. He was not frightened,but it was so hard to keep his balance.

And then he heard a cheery shout behind him, and upcame Jack Frost running as fast as his legs could carryhim, and fairly panting with excitement.

“It’s all right, Billy, go ahead!” he called, laying asteadying hand on the rainbow, which at once hardenedunder his cold.

Thus encouraged Billy proceeded. As he went on henoticed that the snow mountain had ceased to melt. Indeed,it was beginning slowly to rise in the air again, thanks[117]to the influence of Jack Frost, who was freezing the waterfar faster than the Equator could melt it.

Up, up it went, its peak narrowing to a needle point.Above it the Equator, unused to the cold, shriveled andshrank. Now he was the size of a hoop, now of a doughnut,presently he was scarcely larger than a ring.

“Slide!” shouted a familiar voice behind Billy. “Slide,Evening Star, slide for your life!”

The Evening Star heard the voice, and she, as well asBilly, recognized it as the voice of Nimbus.

“The snow mountain is the North Pole!” cried Nimbus.“I just asked an Eskimo where it was and he pointed itout. I came just in time, didn’t I?”

The last question was addressed to the Evening Star,who had followed his advice and slid right into his arms.

“I jumped the gully,” said Nimbus, pointing to theabyss. “There wasn’t time to come over the bridge. Andnow I think we’ve got the Equator where we want him.”

“Over this Pole,” said Nimbus, and as he spoke he slidup the North Pole as a sailor slides down a rope, graspedthe Equator and impaled him upon it.

He rolled him down and down until Jack Frost couldreach him and help hold him, and the Equator, feeling himselfstretched like an elastic over the conical snow peak,saw that he was doomed to be rolled back around the earthand resume his post of duty in the center.

He struggled and twisted in his efforts to escape, butNimbus held him fast, and Jack Frost kept him small bythe clutch of his icy fingers.

Billy danced up and down in his excitement, for once theEquator almost got away.

“Go on down! Go on down!” shouted Billy. “Mymother says you are only an imaginary line, anyway!”

“Why, Billy,” said his mother, “look at the way youhave eaten up your poor North Pole!”

And at the sound of his mother’s voice Nimbus put asunbeam into Billy’s mouth which tasted just like lemoncandy. The clang of the enchanted trolley car sounded inhis ears as the whole lot of his new friends stepped aboardand vanished from his sight. He looked around. But, insteadof Nimbus and the Evening Star and Jack Frostand the Equator, he found his mother smiling down at himas he lay under the lilac bush, and the conductor was justringing the bell for the trolley car to stop at the corner.

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CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	In which Billy Meets Nimbus	3
II.	The Enchanted Trolley Car	13
III.	The Equator Is Loose	23
IV.	The Equine Ox and the Evening Star	37
V.	In Pursuit	47
VI.	On the Passive Volcano	55
VII.	Jack Frost	63
VIII.	The Compass	73
IX.	The Trail of the Runaway	83
X.	Where Night Is Six Months Long	93
XI.	The End of the Chase	105
XII.	Across the Rainbow	115

“THEY SAW THE EQUATOR MAKING OFF A MILE OR TWO AWAY”	Frontispiece
	Facing Page
“WE’LL TAKE THIS SUNBEAM WITH US”	6
“NIMBUS FOLDED THE TRANSFER INTO A TINY WAND AND SAID:‘THIS CAR FOR THE EQUATOR!’”	10
“BOTH THE PLUMBER’S APPRENTICES JUMPED HASTILY TO THEGROUND”	14
“STRAIGHT INTO A GREAT PILE OF SNOW WENT THE CAR”	28
“PRESENTLY THEY BEGAN TO CRY AS HARD AS EVER THEYCOULD”	32
“NOW, SIR, WHERE IS THAT EQUATOR?”	40
“THERE SUDDENLY APPEARED SEVEN LITTLE CHAPS”	48
“WITH A GREAT CRACKLING NOISE THEY SHOT INTO THE VOID”	50
“BILLY TOOK A SHARP STICK AND POKED THE EQUATOR SMARTLY”	60
“SEATING HIMSELF ON THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF, HE SANG”	66
“CONFRONTING THE EQUINE OX WAS THE CONDUCTOR, WAVINGHIS HANDS AND SHOUTING”	76
“THEY TIED THE TROLLEY ROPE TO HIS HORN AND SECURED HIMTO THE CAR”	78
“A METEOR DROPPED AMONG THEM”	80
“‘LISTEN,’ SAID THE EQUINE OX, AND THROWING BACK HISHEAD, HE SANG”	84
“THE EQUINE OX CROWDED INTO THE REAR DOOR”	90

Movatterモバイル変換

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Runaway Equator, and the Strange Adventures of a Little Boy in Pursuit of It

THE RUNAWAY EQUATOR

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

BILLY MEETS NIMBUS

CHAPTER I
IN WHICH BILLY MEETS NIMBUS

THE ENCHANTED TROLLEY CAR

CHAPTER II
THE ENCHANTED TROLLEY CAR

THE EQUATOR IS LOOSE

CHAPTER III
THE EQUATOR IS LOOSE

THE EQUINE OX AND EVENING STAR

CHAPTER IV
THE EQUINE OX AND THE EVENING STAR

IN PURSUIT

CHAPTER V
IN PURSUIT

ON THE PASSIVE VOLCANO

CHAPTER VI
ON THE PASSIVE VOLCANO

JACK FROST

CHAPTER VII
JACK FROST

THE COMPASS

CHAPTER VIII
THE COMPASS

THE TRAIL OF THE RUNAWAY

CHAPTER IX
THE TRAIL OF THE RUNAWAY

WHERE NIGHT IS SIX MONTHS LONG

CHAPTER X
WHERE NIGHT IS SIX MONTHS LONG

THE END OF THE CHASE

CHAPTER XI
THE END OF THE CHASE

ACROSS THE RAINBOW

CHAPTER XII
ACROSS THE RAINBOW

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

Movatterモバイル変換

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Runaway Equator, and the Strange Adventures of a Little Boy in Pursuit of It

THE RUNAWAY EQUATOR

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

BILLY MEETS NIMBUS

CHAPTER IIN WHICH BILLY MEETS NIMBUS

THE ENCHANTED TROLLEY CAR

CHAPTER IITHE ENCHANTED TROLLEY CAR

THE EQUATOR IS LOOSE

CHAPTER IIITHE EQUATOR IS LOOSE

THE EQUINE OX AND EVENING STAR

CHAPTER IVTHE EQUINE OX AND THE EVENING STAR

IN PURSUIT

CHAPTER VIN PURSUIT

ON THE PASSIVE VOLCANO

CHAPTER VION THE PASSIVE VOLCANO

JACK FROST

CHAPTER VIIJACK FROST

THE COMPASS

CHAPTER VIIITHE COMPASS

THE TRAIL OF THE RUNAWAY

CHAPTER IXTHE TRAIL OF THE RUNAWAY

WHERE NIGHT IS SIX MONTHS LONG

CHAPTER XWHERE NIGHT IS SIX MONTHS LONG

THE END OF THE CHASE

CHAPTER XITHE END OF THE CHASE

ACROSS THE RAINBOW

CHAPTER XIIACROSS THE RAINBOW

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

CHAPTER I
IN WHICH BILLY MEETS NIMBUS

CHAPTER II
THE ENCHANTED TROLLEY CAR

CHAPTER III
THE EQUATOR IS LOOSE

CHAPTER IV
THE EQUINE OX AND THE EVENING STAR

CHAPTER V
IN PURSUIT

CHAPTER VI
ON THE PASSIVE VOLCANO

CHAPTER VII
JACK FROST

CHAPTER VIII
THE COMPASS

CHAPTER IX
THE TRAIL OF THE RUNAWAY

CHAPTER X
WHERE NIGHT IS SIX MONTHS LONG

CHAPTER XI
THE END OF THE CHASE

CHAPTER XII
ACROSS THE RAINBOW